Who am I again?
...e bewildering enough to confuse even the most secure individuals. “Like so many other Asian Americans of the second generation, I find myself now the bearer of a strange new status; white, by acclamation” (34). Although Liu is compelled to assimilate into white society, he never feels as if he really belongs. This feeling started soon after beginning middle school, when he realized, like so many of his peers, the pressure to be “cool.” By attempting to accomplish teenage style, Liu thought that he drew more attention to his differences, his hair for example. “As you may recall, 1908 was a vintage year for hair that was parted straight down the middle, then feather on each side [. . .] I dreamed of such hair [. . .] Instead, I was cursed. My hair was straight, rigid, and wiry. Not only did it fail to feather in the back; it would not even bend” (41). Unfortunately, the differences did not end with hair; the idea of girls also posed a problem. He was always the friend and never the boyfriend, to whom he felt the blame, lay on his ethnicity. His answer was to defy the stereotype “of the Asian American male as a one-dimensional nerd” (43), by enrolling in many school activities such as: playing in the orchestra, wrestling, and editing the school paper. These still could not ease the discomfort he felt when compelled to be white, he could not seem to leave the Asian part of him behind and it reared its ugly head at inopportune moments. He often felt awkward when at dinner at a friends house, as “things that came as second nature to many white kids were utterly exotic to [him]”(44). Also exotic and strange to him was life after high school, namely college. While attending Yale, Liu repeated many of his actions from high school, “[combating] the stereotypes in part by trying to disprove them” (50). It was not until he graduated that he finally conquered the mindset that he had become a slave to, centering everything around race. Working today in Washington Liu now believes “while it may be possible to transcend race, it is not always necessary to try” (53). Jazmine too must deal with societies ideals as she grows up multiracial all the while not knowing what it means. When it comes to choosing her ident...